Blood and Jazz

Notes from the Dvirhim Revolution

Ragnar Perünov

Description:

Race: Yugodvir (Hill Dwarf) / Vampire
AC: Did you crit? No? You missed.
HP: 192+indeterminate temp HP from most recent feedings
Saves: Did he roll a 1? No? He saved.

Bio:

Ragnar Perünov was born in 3491, the second son of Radimir Perünov. Always in the shadow of his elder brother Yorek, who was to inherit the position of Head of House, Ragnar nonetheless strove to bring honor to the family legacy even as his parents passed his accomplishments over. When Yorek and his son were both slain in combat during the bicentennial rampage of the green Great Wyrm Lyndesine in 3531, Radimir became desperate to ensure the line continued, and so immediately set about finding a suitable wife for his second son. In 3539, Radimir found one who surpassed his wildest expectations—the Lady Inessa Medivich, third cousin to the Emperor himself, an opportunity for House Perünov to become bound to the royal line forever. Though young Ragnar had no particular affection for the girl he unhesitatingly went forward with his father’s arrangement, knowing that such a chance would likely never come for House Perünov again.

Unfortunately, a few weeks before the wedding Ragnar was attacked, killed, and buried by a free-willed vampire, blood-drunk after being released from the service of the ancient Donovan Locke. Ragnar was too powerful for his murderer to control in undeath, however; with his newfound vampiric power he avenged himself thoroughly, tearing the hapless craven to pieces. Frightened and unsure of how to proceed, Ragnar kept his condition a secret from friends and family and went through with the marriage, not knowing that vampirism had made him utterly sterile.

For a decade and a half thereafter, Ragnar engaged in unspeakable acts of violence and depravity beyond counting in his attempts to fulfill his duty to provide House Perünov with an heir while dodging suspicion of being a vampire. He fed on the blood of the poor and destitute, framed innocents for his own crimes, murdered servants and dear friends who came too close to the truth, and conducted horrible experiments on other vampires and living humanoids in various attempts to cure his sterility. When nothing worked, Ragnar made a thrall of Radimir’s favorite mistress and commanded her to bring him a sample of his father’s seed, using it to secretly impregnate Inessa with his father’s bastard and pass it off as his own child, before commanding the mistress to burn herself in the sun at high noon so as to leave no loose ends. All the while, Ragnar forged alliances and contacts among Dvirhim’s vampire community, building House Perünov’s influence in the underworld even as it rose in prestige among Dvirhim’s nobility.

Inessa stumbled upon her husband’s secret—and the true parentage of her child—a few months before the child’s birth in 3554. Fearful of Ragnar’s power and ruthlessness, she ran, always staying in private homes that Ragnar could not easily obtain permission to enter, only ever traveling by day. When Ragnar would not give up pursuit, she threatened to tell Lord Radimir; in response, Ragnar murdered his own parents, with hardly a moment’s hesitation. Inessa then threatened to have the Perünov bastard aborted, but Ragnar vowed that if the child was harmed in any way he would have her parents killed as well. Ragnar and Inessa played a game of cat and mouse for nearly a century after this incident, as Inessa kept the child close to her, even into his adulthood. Worse, Inessa had attracted the favor of Donovan Locke, who was highly amused by the entire melodrama and admired Inessa’s determination, giving her further protection against Ragnar’s agents.

As Inessa’s parents grew elderly and Ragnar realized that his leverage over her would soon be gone, both of them became increasingly reckless, until at last in 3640 Inessa sent a written record of all the evidence she knew of Ragnar’s vampirism and criminal activities to dozens of press companies and the Medyova Police, too many for Ragnar to stifle. In a showdown in their apartment in Medyova hours before the news broke, Ragnar nearly convinced his father’s bastard to invite him inside under pretext of a family reunion. When the boy refused to listen to Inessa’s pleas that inviting Ragnar inside would be horribly perilous, she shot him through the throat with a flintlock pistol to prevent him from uttering his invitation. Having nothing left to lose and unable to enter the apartment to seek vengeance, Ragnar burned the entire building to the ground, with Inessa still inside.

Ragnar fled to the southern continent of Komwë, where he spent more than three hundred years in exile as a desert warlord, conquering tribes and nations of orcs and goblins, building mines, and drinking the land dry of natural resources just as he drank from living creatures. He became notorious for his cruel indoctrination of thralls, and also for his associations with the obscure cult of Vathris, a lawful neutral deity of retribution and lost causes.

Gradually Ragnar built up a second fortune, waiting for Dvirhim’s laws to grow more progressive and for his fortunes to change. In 3841, Andrei III made it possible for vampires to be full citizens, but did not pardon them for any crimes committed in the process of protecting their identities; in 3987, Fyodor I pardoned Ragnar specifically (but no other vampires) for his crimes, in exchange for access to Ragnar’s resources in Komwë, but did not return Ragnar’s ancestral Perünov properties, lands, or titles. In 3989, Ragnar struck an accord in secret with the rebel Caravag of indeterminate nature; part of this arrangement apparently involves the services of one of Ragnar’s most powerful thralls, the half-orc Fengard, as a member of Caravag’s elite team. Other terms of the arrangement are yet to be discovered.